How are superyacht, business jet and luxury property companies adapting their marketing strategies in the COVID and POST-COVID era?
Throughout the pandemic, we have heard plenty about the whole spectrum of winners and losers created by global lockdowns, with the demand for Amazon and Zoom soaring while tourism worldwide ground to a virtual standstill. Of course, these are very polarized examples with the outcomes for many industries being much more complex, depending on which sector or country an organisation operates in. But what is happening in the superyacht, business jet and luxury property markets? And how have leaders in these fields adapted their marketing and PR strategies to cope with the challenges posed by COVID-19? Are they drawing a tight knot in their budget purse-strings and sitting tight until the crisis is over? Or have they used this time to be more creative with their marketing tactics or even to restructure their business model to make the best of what has been thrown their way? I asked a panel of business development and communications experts working in yachting, business aviation and high-end real estate to give us their feedback on how the coronavirus has affected their marketing plans. Their feedback makes interesting reading, with some surprises along the way.
My first question to our experts was How do you think your company has fared overall during the lockdown period?
Alex Fecteau, Director of Marketing, Boeing Business Jets had this to say: «Aviation has been one of the worst-hit fields by the current pandemic lockdowns… Boeing, as one of two major airplane manufacturers was substantially impacted. One bright spot however has been a surge in interest in business aviation or private jet travel. Traffic in this segment was reduced, but but not as much as commercial traffic, and recovered quicker. Private jet travel recovered inversely with jet size too, where smaller jets are back near PRE-COVID19 levels while the larger jets, more impacted by international restrictions may be more affected. Why might this have happened? Well, exposure to pathogens and other people is much reduced, in fact according to Mckinsey Consulting, their survey estimated that commercial air travelers have on average 700 points of contact through exposure to people or touch points, such as security screening, boarding ramps, overhead bins, washrooms etc. Whereas private travelers experience ~20-30 touch points, a 30-fold reduction in risk. One other positive note for Boeing, many of our customers are heads of state, so many of our sales activities continue with fairly little impact to this point. Some of our business jet customers, like many commercial customers have also taken the opportunity to carry cargo on their jets, including muchneeded PPE equipment to diversify revenue streams. This is an opportunity to the BBJ community that might be unavailable to smaller business jets.»
Toby Maclaurin, Sales Director, at Ocean Independence pointed to the varying affects of COVID restrictions on different parts of the company`s business. “In the early part of the lockdown, the yacht sales and purchase side went silent”, he explained. “But later on, we had loads of enquiries. Prospective Owners started thinking about the benefits of keeping their families safe and secure on board a yacht. We got around logistical problems but doing virtual inspections, or by moving the yacht to where the buyer was if they couldn`t travel. We had sold 6 yachts by June with 8 transactions now under way, which is roughly half of what we`d expect to sell in the same period during a normal year. On the yacht management side, it was exactly as we saw it during the financial crisis, in that how a vessel is managed becomes more important than ever. The Owner can focus on his business, while his yacht is taken care of. When faced with the situation of a yacht is being turned away from a port because of the restrictions, yacht managers really earn their money. Our yacht management team can work from home and our income from this part of the business was unaffected.” Unsurprisingly, it was the chartering department at Ocean Independence that has most felt the affects of the pandemic. What`s more the MYBA Yacht Charter contract, widely accepted as standard across the
industry “was not helpful to the charterer” according to Toby Maclaurin. Under its terms, that are updated every 2 years, “The charterer couldn`t cancel the contract due to force majeure and expect to receive a full refund”, he explained. Fortunately, his company managed to negotiate an amicable solution with the vast majority of charterers.
Some businesses were luckier than others in that they were actually expected to remain open, as was the case for Starboard Yacht Group, a yacht maintenance company based in the U.S. Renee Walker, Starboard`s Marketing and Sales Director, explains:
“We have been extremely blessed during this pandemic. We are considered an essential business so we didn’t have to close but we definitely had to change the daily operations. Technology has been a great ally that has been allowing us to continue with meetings via Zoom, reaching out to partners & customer through the same platform. Also, we have been able to reach more people than ever in social media”. Oscar Siches, an industry consultant who specializes in yacht harbours and marinas reports that “Boats on berths kept paying their fees”. Others have seen a marked slowdown. Pandora Mather-lees of Artonsuperyachts.com offers training in caring for art collections to superyacht, luxury hospitality and lifestyle professionals. “We had a few halted projects which was quite disappointing.” she told Quaynote. “But have survived despite this. It was a good time to take stock, have a bit of a break from constant networking and re-evaluate things”.
Despite the disparate experiences of our panellists during the lockdown, they all shared a sense of positivity. I asked them Did you put your marketing and business development on hold during lockdown?
“No, quite the opposite it was an opportunity to step up the marketing” Pandora Mather-lees commented. “I actually upskilled myself a lot in digital media, video and social media to start getting a better presence in the market - particularly Instagram - people have been open to speaking on the phone and to share their development plans and ideas for collaboration.”
Renee Walker also focused on her company`s social media presence, despite the unique challenges posed by the lockdown, as she explains: “I am lucky enough to have the option to work from home when needed. It was challenging for me to go to work while having a 2-year-old and daycares being closed, so I just worked from home for over 6 weeks. My co-workers helped me out by sending me content constantly to continue posting on social media.” She adds: “Business for the yachting industry didn’t slow down at all during the ongoing pandemic, actually I think we’ve been busier than ever! By people not being able to go out to restaurants and bars, I think they just started to focus more on using their boats for entertainment and relaxation. This brought us more business and still is.”
Alexis Fecteau talked about the severe restrictions on in-person visits and how Boeing Business Jets have responded by stepping up communications efforts to optimize the company`s visibility. In addition to emphasizing the health benefits business jet travel, BBJ have spotted another opportunity that is unavailable to smaller business jet charter operators – cargo carriage. As Alex elaborated: “We have been assisting some of our charter and vacation company customers
with certification and methods to carry cargo to help diversify and generate additional business revenue, like some of our Boeing commercial carriers.” For Oscar Siches, it`s business as usual. “My marketing is my reputation; people have kept approaching me for the usual consultancy works,” he asserts. Differing government aid schemes have been a significant factor in determining company policy. For Ocean Independence, the company was faced with what Toby Maclaurin describes as a “terrible decision”. The entire marketing department is based in the UK, where the “furlough” system operates, with any employees “furloughed” by their employers not allowed to work. “Our UK employees really wanted to work and help get the company back on its feet” Toby explained. “But, unlike France for instance where employees [receiving emergency benefits] are allowed to work part-time, we had to tell a large part of our UK marketing colleagues to stop working.” With a reduced marketing team, the company has used the time to pursue website stories and social media posts, so that they had plenty of informative content for clients when everything started to open up again. “Some of our industry colleagues stopped messaging – I think that was wrong,” Toby observes. “We started messaging generically, using aspirational themes of what would be available one day, such as Top 5 lists – the Top 5 wines to drink on board your charter yacht, the Top 5 tech items to have on board. As a result, our social engagement actually went up during this period.”
As lockdowns ease across Europe, with the shadow of some restrictions being re-introduced in selected areas and parts of the U.S., how are the superyacht, business aviation and luxury property industries planning to gear up their marketing? Has the pandemic changed their business and what impact will this have on future marketing plans?
For now, increased use of social media campaigns, substituting face-to-face meetings with Zoom calls and an emphasis on creative, sometimes tailored sales and marketing strategies are the order of the day. Indeed, for some, delivering the end-product can be done just as effectively online as in person. As Pandora Mather-lees points out, “being a training company, we can train remotely, I was approached by some education platforms to deliver courses online and this is an exciting new development - it takes a lot of work, but once done it is set up and can be rolled out to other channels.” When all is said and done, most of our panel referred to the importance of building relationships and trust through in-person meetings. For Alexis Fecteau “the biggest differences for future marketing strategies will be traveling to see our customers and participating in our traditional high-value conferences and airshows to display our airplanes. Since so many of these very expensive and complex transactions are based on foundations of personal relationship and trust, our visits to our customers cannot be overemphasized.”
Oscar Siches has been writing a number of papers that he believes will help raise his exposure as a consultant during and after the pandemic. He remarks, “The pandemic brought an unexpected, new situation that nobody had guessed at before. Gathering experiences from this situation will enrich my views and I believe will prove invaluable for future consultancies.”
As we play the prediction game and dare to anticipate the end of lockdowns around the world, do the panel have any take-aways they`d like to share with us?
“Just be aware of how much our customers like to go yachting!” enthuses Toby Maclaurin. “By the end of June / beginning of July we had already seen charters set sail for Greece, Croatia, Alaska and the Bahamas. And the feedback from all of them was good.” On a philosophical note, Oscar Siches reminds us that it is human beings that support the business. We should shift our resources to support our human assets, he believes. “Training managers, dockhands and other qualified workers… without them, the business is not there anymore…i do not see the robotic marina becoming the trend.” In a similar vein, Pandora Mather-lees sums up the spirit of resilience that has characterized our industries and much of the global response to the pandemic: “However these restrictions having been forced upon us, as adaptable human beings I believe we have all joined in the spirit of the times and made a really good job of managing our collective predicament.”